The present invention relates to a digital video surveillance system and more particularly to a system which connects to and integrates with existing video camera networks, alarm security and other process monitoring systems to enhance physical protection of high-value assets and installations.
Automated security systems have become extremely valuable for protecting highly sensitive facilities. Many security systems available today provide for real-time evaluation of images as viewed by video cameras. Alarm conditions are declared when a sensor detects an intrusion or other abnormal event within the field of view of a camera. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,876,597 to Roy et al., 4,943,854 to Shiota et al. and 4,511,886 to Rodriguez.
Furthermore, some systems now available have the ability to digitize and store video images of a sequence just prior to, during and after an alarm condition. This allows an operator to view what caused the alarm condition so as to take the appropriate action (or inaction). This feature is known as "pre-alarm image recall".
It has been recognized that a security system often must be designed and actually "specialized" or configured for a particular application. For example, there are security systems known which are designed to monitor areas in nuclear power plant facilities. These types of security systems are, however, limited to use only in nuclear power facilities and would need to be completely revised and redesigned to work in other applications. Further, these systems each address only one aspect of physical security providing, for example, only pre-alarm image recall, motion detection or image storage. That the prior security systems of this type are so limited in use is a major draw-back in the art.